I’m trying all the popular Sides Hustles in 2024 it seems. Since I am saving for a camper again I have been doing a popular series on my social media accounts called Side Hustle Roundup where I talk about how much I have been making doing side hustles to fund my travel. I’m going to break down how I have been doing saving money in the month of October and my goals for November.
October Side Hustle Round Up
I made $622.39 in August and September doing side hustles. Did I do better in October? The answer to that is a resounding NO! It sounds like I made so much when you add the two months together, but separated I made $396.58 in August and in $225.81 September. This month I only made $136.25 doing my side hustles.
- Mystery Shops: $0.00 ($30 pending)
- Gift Cards – $30.00 US Bank Gift Card from my doctor for doing a survey
- Reselling: $0.00
- Subscriptions: $0.00 ($33.64 pending)
- Branded Surveys: $63.25
- Cash Stuffing: 28.00
Mystery shops are kind of my achilles heel. I did two of them this month, but the problem is that these are typically only available during the week and they are for the same places over and over. So once I complete it for one location, I can’t do it for that same location again for another 30 days. Plus, some of the compensation is insanely awful. The other bad part, is if I do it in October, I don’t get paid for it until November. So even though I did two mystery shops this month, it won’t count. So my total for them is zero.
I also tanked on reselling things and my subscriptions – I put zero effort into either of them and so I made nothing on them.
I did however surpass my goal for Branded Surveys! I wanted to earn $50 in surveys this month, but I actually made $63.25!! And then I also took a survey while I was at the doctor’s office and they gave me a $30 US Bank card as a reward, which was unexpected an awesome! You can use that on literally anything.
I fell off on cash stuffing, mainly because I used my extra check to help snowball some debt and so I did not have extra cash on hand to use for extra spending money. I paid my car registration and had several birthday gifts to buy towards the end. My last paycheck of the month was yesterday so I can’t count the cash I got out yesterday as part of October’s cash stuffing because I don’t be using it in October!
Looking Ahead
For November I am just trying to make some extra money to help me pay for these new tires on the SUV. I have $300 saved towards them, but they are almost $800 tires. Literally nothing is going to end up going towards the camper this month because of the savings getting wiped out thanks to vandalism so that stinks but hopefully I can recoup that at another point.
- Mystery Shop Goal: I am going to try to complete 1 each week. It depends on what is offered but at least two a month, the ideal being doing one each week.
- Branded Survey Goal: $65
- Reselling Goal: $50
- Social Media: $20 – Follow me on Facebook and let’s try to get me monetized!
- Subscriptions: $20
- Cash Stuffing: I have to get back on this. I am going to try for $400 again!
Total goal for November is to make $100.00.Trying to keep it small because setting lofty goals didn’t motivate me at all. Let’s try setting an easy goal and see if that makes it easier to accomplish?
Observation
I noticed that each month as it gets closer to Thanksgiving and Christmas (more time being eaten up by Friends and Family) that maybe I’m spending more and also not working or also not being as frugal and saving. I am going to focus on trying to use the Thrift Stores and set a budget of $20 per gift for each person and really sticking to that. My partner and I already did our Christmas Presents to each other (and it’s way over the limit, but it’s also our vacation and anniversary gift to each other for next year too). So I just need to get him a birthday gift and that’s something I already have an idea of what to get him. I am absolutely the type of person to show my affection through gifts (and every love language besides Words of Affirmation – I’ve never been great at that one despite being a writer). I need to work on that!